“Microsoft has quietly shelved a consumer information service that was once planned as the centerpiece of the company’s foray into the market for tightly linked Web services. The service, originally code-named Hailstorm and later renamed My Services, was to be the clearest example of the company’s ambitious .Net strategy. It was intended to permit an individual to keep an online persona independent of his or her desktop computer, supposedly safely stored as part of a vast data repository where there could be easy access to it from any point on the Internet. At the time of the introduction of My Services, Microsoft also proclaimed that it would have a set of prominent partners in areas like finance and travel for the My Services system. However, according to both industry consultants and Microsoft partners, after nine months of intense effort the company was unable to find any partner willing to commit itself to the program.” Read the rest of the report at Yahoo!News. It’s worth noting that this is quite a setback for Microsoft’s overall .NET strategy.
Microsoft Has Shelved Its Internet ‘Persona’ Service
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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*does a little jig*
this is cool, now we will not be opressed by the beast.
oh crap…..I just read on /. that MS is putting restrictions on OEMs that if they want to use the MS logo, they will have to provide BIOSs that have win32 flash interfaces.
well, when Windows can change the BIOS so that no other OS can boot from it, with OSNEWS become MSOSNEWS?
Woow.. this is good news. Philosophically, I can keep an open mind on the .net thing, but the passport aspect of it was scary. Anyways, how will this impact Sun’s Liberty project? And mono/dotgnu?
>no other OS can boot from it
There goes the developer base! If they will not only make the OEM not boot other OSs, but make Win32 boot only on OEMs, the university students who used to warez it, will switch to Linux…
I’m sorry to say but this monopolistic evil view of MS im sorry to say sure MS has a strategy like any other company to gain large market shares but if you all continue to be azzwads about the fact that UI Development needs UI Growth the fact is that it is required. How far will we get with MS not releasing any advanced OS’s and other equipment what is the big problem. If you have a problem with windows STOP RUNNING IT cause 80 – 95% of all of you are on a windows platform. Sure i enjoy hopping to linux and even beos from time to time but the fact is I ALWAYS come back to windows. For development especially applications the API cant get much more described. As for OS development god dam* MS even gives a full explenation of many sections of there OS i even managed to find a full whitepaper on the Windows Memory layer on MSDN my god one of the most documented companies is under fire from everyone. Im sorry but i like the idea of advances. The fact that soon i will be able to walk around my home with a MS Tablet and control my lights and tv etc all from the .net strategy is pretty impressive of course i always want to fiddle with other os’s and if another os becomes as well documented and written as the (later versions) of windows then i will switch but as it is now MS is not the demon it is being pertrayed as. .NET is a big step andmay look monopolistic but jesus a company got to expand. Hell “AOL TIME WARNER” is a company i wud be cussin at not MSN and MS. Anyways just my 2 cents for now talk later…
>>of course i always want to fiddle with other os’s and if another os becomes as well documented and written as the (later versions) of windows then i will switch<<
Nothing is as well documented as UNIX… so now you too can be posessed by the daemon (or the penguin)!
🙂
>>There goes the developer base! If they will not only make the OEM not boot other OSs, but make Win32 boot only on OEMs, the university students who used to warez it, will switch to Linux…<<
If this happens, then there wont be much difference between PCs and Macs, which will be strickened by one OS and one OS only!
*A bit of sarcasm for the day, please don’t take with seriousness or it may result in nausea and migrains.
🙂
well, hopfuly, consumer Mobos will have standard BIOS and only OEMs will have the custom BIOS….I am sure the BIOS makers will have no problem making special versions for the OEMs since they do it now.
Damnit, what silly idiots are allowed to write comments here?
That Win32 flash interface does just mean that the OEM have to assure that you can flash the BIOS in Windows. A machine doesn’t deserve a windows logo if it still needs DOS to flash the BIOS.
now that’s a relief. Ain’t much new comment to add on, except that I couldn’t have pictured a ‘safe’ web with Hailstorm at its core. I’m quite surprised that they couldn’t find any company ready to follow them… don’t they own like 30% of all the big OEMs? (just a wild guess)
Oh my, I don’t even know where to begin.
I’m sorry to say but this monopolistic evil view of MS im sorry to say sure MS has a strategy like any other company to gain large market shares
OK, name one company that has the same strategy, business practises as micrsoft.
Also, name one company that could get away with making DOA products for years and still maintain as the worlds most powerful company. All that, without being a big greedy capitalistic company.
How far will we get with MS not releasing any advanced OS’s and other equipment what is the big problem.
We will probably get further and faster without MS. Big companies moves slowly, competition breeds innovation. Right?
For development especially applications the API cant get much more described.
I would have to agree with CattMacBe here, UNIX is far more documented than Windows.
Im sorry but i like the idea of advances.
Me too. Really. But who sais that MS is the one to make the advances?
Read my comment on “how far will we get”
The fact that soon i will be able to walk around my home with a MS Tablet and control my lights and tv etc all from the .net strategy is pretty impressive
And you call that advances? That has been consumer technology in most parts of the world since at least the 70’s. But back then they were called remotecontrols. It’s really cheap technology. For some pocketmoney, you can have it installed today if you want to. If you want something slightly more advanced, buy a PDA and use your PC as a server.
It’s not any “technology of the future” it’s here now, and it’s been here for decades. And BTW, MS is not the only ones developing such solutions. Be Inc was also pretty much doing this, where was your support then? Oh yeah, they can’t advance.
.NET is a big step andmay look monopolistic but jesus a company got to expand.
Who sais? Are you saying that MS couldn’t last a long time with its current line of product? Aaah. may it be that they can’t because they can’t do them well enough.
Trust me, a company doesn’t have to expand and expand forever to survive. they can even cut down in size and still make more money. You have been brainwashed by this greedy world.
“I just read on /. that MS is putting restrictions on OEMs that if they want to use the MS logo, they will have to provide BIOSs that have win32 flash interfaces. ”
Do you believe everything you read on Slashdot?
IMHO Slashdot is the National Enquirer of the e-press.
I disagree vehemently with your comment that Microsoft is like any large company “seeking to increase market share.” Hell-oooo-o! MSFT is a CONVICTED MONOPOLIST, and have decidedly not shown that they can provide secure services or software, or that they can be trusted. There is general agreement that Web-based services as articulated by .NET are in fact highly desirable, but only an apologist for Redmond could take the tack that only Microsoft can implement these advanced services, and that any criticisms are rooted in envy. They are in fact rooted in fear of an untrustworthy monopolist.
Before you start worrying about GUI BIOS access ( NOOOOO the average user is an ill-educated jerk, dont allow them access to the BIOS!!!! ) , wonder why so few Linux distributions now shippiong can dual boot with Windows XP and 2000
mandrake certainly cant, if u just use the disk, which is the service they purportedly sell… sounds like Lindows wont either, and Red Hat apparently has serious trouble and requires a custom install.
to work on the Dekstop, Linux needs foolproof simple installation – like it had with Win9X as a co-platform. Until the distributions get that right Microsoft doesnt need to restrict BIOS access to MS OS’ – cos no-ones installing them on OEMs anyway.
“OK, name one company that has the same strategy, business practises as micrsoft.
Also, name one company that could get away with making DOA products for years and still maintain as the worlds most powerful company. All that, without being a big greedy capitalistic company”
Intel, they give discounts to oems that use intel chips exclusively (but hey at least the amd fans don’t whine about it like linux geeks). They also give so called features to their chips that make them faster then the competition when code is written specifically for them (amd does the same thing though now that they are an actual player on the consumer level). The p3 was major spy hardware (it tracked your online movements completely, and even after it was known and they apologized millions still shipped with the spying on by default and only going out of your way to find the software to turn it off could “protect” you, much worse then anying “spyware” produced by ms, and intel made a heap more money off it then ms has ever made off “spying”). Hell you could even say intel killed cyrix (that would be over looking the fact that cyrix chips were playing catch up with the intel chips in speed and implementation, which is exactly what linux is doing right now in relation to windows). btw how is windows DOA? It gets better almost everytime (yes me sucked, but 2k more than made up for it, and I know plenty of newbs who like me better, and their who me was aimed at), and it works out of the box (literally, install win98 and newer on almost any hardware and your up and running, granted your not running the most up to day drivers, but you can be up and running with 80-90% functionality in a lot less time then linux, bsd, qnx, atheos, beos, obos, etc).
“We will probably get further and faster without MS. Big companies moves slowly, competition breeds innovation. Right?”
Wrong. If people were still making cars in their garage we’d be going 25mph on dirt roads. It took Ford to make the car usable (and if not for them then some other company would’ve eventually stepped up).
“I would have to agree with CattMacBe here, UNIX is far more documented than Windows.”
Were not talking unix, were talking linux. Unix is a very, very expensive os that no one uses on desktops. Linux is the free version, which is somewhat compatable with it, that almost noone uses. It is more documented though, the question is which version is compatable with which white paper takes longer to figure out then actually reading the white paper.
“And you call that advances? That has been consumer technology in most parts of the world since at least the 70’s. But back then they were called remotecontrols. It’s really cheap technology. For some pocketmoney, you can have it installed today if you want to.”
Its the implementation thats innovative. Yes these solutions have existed for years, but they cost tons of money or are hard to implement, or both. As for comparing it to remote controlls show me the system where I walk around with a remote do everything this type of thing can (its not available, each individual object to be manipulated would have its own remote, which makes it much too cumbersome). As for be doing it thats a pretty good joke. They made a great os, but they were the worst business people (next to most of the linux companies that is).
“Are you saying that MS couldn’t last a long time with its current line of product? Aaah. may it be that they can’t because they can’t do them well enough.
Trust me, a company doesn’t have to expand and expand forever to survive. they can even cut down in size and still make more money. You have been brainwashed by this greedy world.”
They can’t, but not because they don’t do it well enough, its because they’re reaching saturation. All successful companies expand when they reach saturation (ie a restaurant is successfull so it franchises or opens up new locations, coke is sold in 99.99999999% of stores in the us so it moved over seas, etc.). Show me a single company that got smaller and made more money and I’ll show you a company that was inefficiently run. As for being “brainwashed” by a greedy world comment hypocritical considering your previous point was how to make money.
Never thought American Express would save our @rses.
Can you imagine how insecure it would be – let alone trustng M$ with your info and transactions. compare hailstorm with the number of the beast – revelations.